Chapter 5 - NATHAN FOUND HIS FATHER’S LETTERHenry Sterling died eighteen months before I returned.
Heart attack.
Nathan inherited operational control of the company.
But several family trusts remained under independent or maternal oversight.
After the kidnapping accusation, Nathan searched his father’s private archive.
Locked cabinet.
Old correspondence.
He found a sealed envelope.
NATHAN — OPEN BEFORE YOUR MARRIAGE
His father’s handwriting.
Nathan called me before opening it.
“I want you here.”
I hesitated.
Then went.
Eleanor was not invited.
Neither was Victoria.
Nathan broke the seal.
The letter began:
Son, there is something about Victoria Ashford you must know before you marry her.
Nathan stopped.
I felt cold.
He continued.
Her mother, Caroline Ashford, and I had an affair twenty-nine years ago.
Silence.
Nathan looked at me.
Then kept reading.
Victoria is my biological daughter.
Nathan dropped the page.
Neither of us moved.
His fiancée.
May you like
The woman he had been twelve days away from marrying.
Was his half-sister.
